


Love, Blood, and Rhetoric

by anonbach



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, French Revolution, Gen, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-09
Updated: 2014-01-09
Packaged: 2018-01-08 01:33:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1126831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonbach/pseuds/anonbach
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fuck You, I’m the French Version of Samuel Pepys: or, Selected Bits from the Journal of Jean “Bad French Pseudonym” Watson, Revolutionary, proponent of the Sans-Culottes, former Mercenary, former Member of the National Assembly, and Flatmate to the Englishman Sherlock Holmes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love, Blood, and Rhetoric

_1789_

5 May

The Estates-General opened today for the first time in living memory, and I happened to be elected to represent the people of France through the Third Estate. My sister, Harriet, suggested that I keep this journal for posterity, and though I believe it will be tedious, it may nonetheless prove interesting to watch the after-effects of the recent revolution develop.

6 May

The King addressed all three Estates directly today, and such a sorry discourse it was! Voting will be “by orders” instead of heads, and thusly will we be outnumbered by the First and Second Estates, even if some of the poorer clergy are sympathetic to our cause.

8 May

The King is now attempting to divert our attention from the issue of representation by focusing solely on the issue of taxes. Necker at least is sympathetic to our cause.

17 May

Pointless.

22 May

Nothing ever happens to me.

Twenty days and I have not been outside of Versaille, nor have I taken it upon myself to eat in companionship with the others.

Honoré Mirebeau has been trying but is failing to keep the three orders in a single room for the meetings, and now we are in a state of impassé. This is ridiculous, and useless.

Nothing happens to France, either.

28 May

We have failed to meet as a single body, so now the Third Estate must meet on its own.

4 June

The sky is grey , the mood sombre, and the palace draped in black as the king and his wife mourn the loss of their son.

Alas for the Dauphin, Louis-Joseph.

Alas for France.

13 June

A resolution was passed today. It is hoped that this will give strength to the Communes and end stalemate.

17 June

Mssr. Riqueti proposed that the Third Estate call itself ‘the National Assembly.’ He reasoned quite eloquently, but I will record it here in a more succinct manner: “The Third Estate is an assembly not of the estates, but of the people.”

20 June

We were locked out of the Salle de États today. I cannot simply express the fury that I feel toward the king, the nobles, and the clergymen. Their arrogance exceeds itself.

This gesture moved the National Assembly, myself included, to meet in a local squash court. There, we took an oath ‘not to separate and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established.’ It is monumental, and to my knowledge, all but Michel Paÿe, a dear friend of mine but often quite lacklustre, signed it.

  
No one mentioned that I was a mercenary loyal to the King. Even now, I doubt who I am, who I was, and I fear that my friends may turn against me.

**Author's Note:**

> For [this prompt](http://sherlockbbc-fic.livejournal.com/19351.html?thread=115699351#t115699351)


End file.
